The silence of the Sunny’s Palace was broken by a sudden, urgent voice in Sunny’s mind.
[Master, A human demigod has appeared in our multiverse... from the description.... it seems, he isn’t from our multiverse, he appeared out of nowhere]
Thea’s voice was calm, but laced with a hint of surprise.
A holographic projection materialized before Sunny’s throne, displaying the image of a young man drifting unconscious in the dark space.
He wore flowing blue robes, now tattered and scorched, and his face was etched with the mory of a betrayal.
"Oh? A human demigod?" Sunny leaned forward, intrigued. "Show his status panel."
A new interface shimred into existence, its blue light reflecting in Sunny’s cosmic mask.
[Na: rlin
Race: Human
Profession: Card Master (SS-Grade)
Talent: Unlucky Luck (S-Grade), Keen Eyes (S-Grade)
Soul Cards (Bound): Water Control (SS-Grade), Molecular Severance (SS-Grade), Abyssal Pressure (SS-Grade), Blood Ruler (SS-Grade), Formless Body (SS-Grade), Ocean’s mory (SS-Grade), Eternal Erosion (SS-Grade), Tsunami of Souls (SS-Grade)
Description: A renowned demigod from the Multiverse of Arcana. Cursed with a fortune that brings him disaster, yet blessed with the resilience to turn every calamity into a windfall. His current state is the result of his latest, and greatest, misfortune.]
"Soul Cards..." Sunny murmured, reading the unfamiliar terms. "That is... sothing new."
His mind flashed back to the River of Ti, to a fleeting mory of the ancient war.
He rembered seeing the God of Cards, a God who commanded legions of warriors wielding bizarre skills sealed within rectangular cards.
They had fought valiantly, drowning demons in summoned oceans and sealing them in paper prisons, but in the end, the sheer force of the Demon Lords had overwheld them.
"Thea," Sunny commanded, standing up. "Teleport him here. I would like to et this traveler personally."
A portal tore open in the center of the throne room. From it, a figure walked out; not under his own power, but puppeted by millions of Thea’s microscopic particles that had infiltrated his nervous system to move his unconscious body.
rlin collapsed gently onto the polished, star-forged floor.
"You may go," Sunny said to the particles. "Let him rest."
He activated his God’s Eye.
Instantly, the life of this young man flashed before him like a high-speed film.
Sunny watched rlin’s birth in a world of card-based magic. He saw the tragic death of his parents, murdered for a rare card.
He saw a young, desperate rlin delving into ancient ruins, surviving traps that should have killed him, and erging with knowledge lost of a long lost era.
He saw the mont rlin found the Heart-Bone of the Primordial Fire Dragon, a treasure of incalculable worth.
And then, Sunny saw the love story.
He watched as rlin t Calley, the beautiful, icy demigod, in the ruins of a Fire Dragon temple.
He felt rlin’s caution lt away, replaced by a deep affection. He saw two thousand years of partnership, of fighting back-to-back against monsters and rival guilds. He felt the warmth of their bond, a rare thing in a cold universe.
And then, he felt the knife.
The betrayal played out in agonizing detail. The invasion of the God of White Fla. The fear. The desperate plan to escape.
And finally, the cold steel against rlin’s throat, held by the woman he loved.
Sunny felt the shock, the heartbreak, and the desperate, last-ditch activation of the SSS-Grade Instant Teleportation Card.
"What a poor soul," Sunny whispered, a genuine pity in his voice.
He looked at rlin’s talent, Unlucky Luck. It was a cruel joke. The universe threw him into the fire just so he could find a diamond in the ashes.
"He ca here using a teleportation card," Sunny analyzed, tracing the residual spatial magic on rlin’s robes. "But the coordinates... they were marked for Adam’s original planet."
Sunny realized the truth. "With Adam’s planet moved to my subspace, the coordinates led to empty space. If Thea hadn’t found him, he would have drifted forever. I guess this was the final arrangent of the old God of Cards to his successor; a life-saving escape that led to the planet of the king of the Gods, Adam"
He turned his attention to the power system itself. From rlin’s mories, Sunny unlocked the secrets of Arcana.
It was a path of terrifying potential. A mortal didn’t need to comprehend abstract laws or cultivate for millennia.
They just needed a formula. Find the right materials; the heart of a kraken, the essence of a storm, the tear of a god; combine them with so special techniques, and forge a Card.
Etch that card into your soul, and the power beca yours.
An F-Grade card made you stronger. An E-Grade card elevated your profession. And as you grew, your cards grew with you.
When rlin beca an SS-Grade Demigod, every single one of his cards automatically upgraded to SS-Grade.
"Does that an..." Sunny’s eyes widened behind his mask. "When they beco a God... they can have nine SSS-Grade Soul Bound Cards?" (9 because every grade allows only one card, F->SSS)
That ant nine SSS-Grade talents.
"What a bizarre, broken system," Sunny breathed, his heart pounding with the thrill of discovery. "It’s resource consuming but the ceiling... the ceiling is infinite."
He imdiately began to upload the data. rlin’s thousands of years of research, his knowledge of card formulas, material locations, and fusion techniques; all of it flowed into Thea.
"Thea," he commanded, his voice filled with excitent. "I am transferring you the entire knowledge of the Arcana power system" "Analyze it. Cross-reference every material required for card creation with the resources available in this multiverse, the Realm of Advancent, and our new worlds. If we have the ingredients... we can build this."
[Yes, Master]
Sunny looked down at the unconscious demigod. rlin was a treasure trove. But he was also a victim.
His mind drifted back to the tragedy he had just witnessed. He saw the final monts again. The coldness in Calley’s eyes. The desperation in rlin’s.
"rlin... rlin..." the God of White Fla had hissed, a holographic tyrant demanding tribute.
"I don’t possess anything," rlin had lied, protecting the secret he had shared only with his lover.
And then, the betrayal. "rlin, my dear... why don’t you just hand it over?"
Sunny clenched his fist. He hated betrayal. But currently, the only thing he can do was to wait for rlin to wake up.
After half an hour, rlin stirred. His eyelids fluttered.
The first thing he saw was not the cold space, but the swirling, cosmic face of the Emperor who had just witnessed his entire life.
"Wake up, Card Master," Sunny whispered. "Your bad luck just ran out."
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